The IFPA is proud to announce that Zach Sharpe has finished at #1 on the World Pinball Player Rankings, thus earning IFPA’s top honor as the 2017 “World’s Greatest Pinball Player”. No single tournament victory will ever secure this title for a given year. Only consistent play at the highest level over the course of multiple years leads to players reaching the pinnacle of the World Pinball Player Rankings. This is the 2nd time that Zach has been crowned the World’s Greatest Pinball Player out of the 12 times we have awarded it, the last time being in 2013.

Zach’s greatest achievement of 2017 was winning the PAPA Circuit Final and well as finishing in the top 3 in all PAPA Classics Divisions at PAPA20, winning one of them. Channeling his older brother, Zach had a slew of 2nd place finishes in 2017 including the IFPA Pin-Masters, IFPA US National Pinball Championship, PAPA20 Classics II and the Pinball Expo Flip-Out Tournament.

Overall, Zach won 12% of the 26 events he played in, while placing in the top 4 at 42% of his 2017 events, a truly remarkable achievement. Congratulations to Zach, and best of luck to everyone on the upcoming 2018 season in the race for #1. Zach will get officially receive his WGPP trophy at the IFPA15 World Pinball Championship in Toronto in June (after he builds it himself next month).